1. The rise and fall of fate,
Overpowers me in my state,

2. Don't deny that my ways have changed,
For spears may bend from where they're ranged,

3. Don't wonder that I complain,
The stricken oft cry out in pain,

4. I flow as virtues' veins run dry,
As desert rains flow and then die,

5. My plaintive words please me yet,
Though days for them no favor get,

6. She blamed me, though my soul she knew,
I'm nailed to time, a cross of rue,

7. She drew me down from my high state,
Then turned her back, hope comes too late,

8. Rarely does hope its promise keep,
Where paths are blocked or goals too steep,

9. She saw me not as I know myself,
Pure, though I've drunk of passion's well,

10. Misled by whims she made her aim,
Guesses miss their mark or claim,

11. If she'd but known I keep my name,
Lest I wake shamed when night's flame

12. Is quenched, what's sown is reaped in full,
Clear water or bitter drafts I cull,

13. I shun roses for colocynth's bite,
As camels flock to water at night,

14. I guard my feet from shameful earth,
Lest my soul choke on dirt in mirth,

15. I face the sword held to my crown,
And death whose blade is sharpened down,

16. No dread makes my eyes start and shiver,
No anguish that's too grim to suffer,

17. Let them know my steel is sure
Save to all things base and poor,

18. My throat swallows each barb with ease,
And meets each abandonment with peace,

19. She ravaged my soul and best days,
Whose gentle winds mourned their ways,

20. Alas, for days whose sweet flights,
Held youth 'twixt their fingers, delights,

21. That busied me when they were here,
And saddened when they disappeared,

22. Her cloak I donned but off me cast,
Can borrowed raiment truly last?

23. With dignity kept disgrace at bay,
As morning's light led me away,

24. He walks atop the skulls of foes,
Scarred, mounted, but composed,

25. If wronged, no blood stains his clothes,
Strife sheathes in courage's repose,

26. Time turned its sail to run its track,
All things are known in hindsight's glance

27. I slipped the bonds of old romance,
Like birds released from an old dance,

28. Fate garbles messages it sends,
Till loved and loathed the same portends,

29. Ask fate's daughters, they agree,
I shun all pastures of shame for me,

30. A curse on him who wakes and sleeps,
His only thoughts food that he eats and drinks,

31. Does he not see sustenance is got
By striving not by things unsought?

32. My sires judge what lives must pay,
Some they favor, some lead astray,

33. Once abandoned no return is seen,
Once embraced, the far is near,

34. Endurance is the way of life,
Can fate and terms be specified?

35. Many live on, then taste death's thrust,
Some worn, some with lives robust,

36. Fate has cycles, bleak then glad,
Life's toil, then rest for hearths or nomad,